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Given the taste and price; why aren't you using it already?

As a student, ketchup is an essential part of my diet. But branded stuff costs so much these days, I originally went down to the "by Sainsbury's" range, which was good. Then I saw the Basics stuff, and thought "why not?".

At 25p it is a real bargain, the next range up is 75p. And, other than the fact the more expensive variety comes in a squeezy bottle, it really is hard to see why.

It's cheap enough to not really worry if it tastes bad, but to be honest it's really good; I reckon it tastes the same as the Heinz stuff; the "by Sainsbury's" range has a slightly different taste, although still good, it wasn't quite the same. And in this instance: I'm struggling to tell the difference. OK, it is kind of salty, and a bit more sharp tasting, which won't be to everyone's taste; but it really isn't bad, it must be said.

So, should you buy it? Definitely. I am very particular about my food, and normally have slightly more expensive tastes; but here the cheapest option tastes no different to the most expensive options. In our flat, we tend to share ketchup, as it's a commodity we all use in equal amounts, so we may as well buy it as a group. And we just get this stuff; it's amazing and only 25p.

The only, very small caveat here, is it comes in a glass bottle rather than a squeeze bottle. Not a deal breaker, and at this price there is no excuse to be fussy, but folks like my sister, who cannot seem to use this type of bottle without making a mess, may struggle. But at 25p, you will learn to live with it.

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My only complaint is its in a glass bottle but foe 34p you can't complain

I can be a bit of a snob when it comes to brands but in this economic climate I have started to try different supermarket own products and their lower budget ranges. It's like anything just trial and error some products in the lower budget ranges are quite nice but then others taste bland or overly sweet, especially tomato based product in low budget ranges, taste very sweet or even synthetic.It was Sainsbury's turn this week for trying out their lower budget ranges so in the shopping trolley went their basics tomato ketchup 560gram and for 0.34p I didn't mind trying it. The bottle doesn't look too bad I like the packaging of sainburies basics.It is in a glass bottle but for 0.34p you really can't moan. I opened the bottle and it looked the right consistency. Then we get to the taste test I put a big dollop of sauce on my plate next to my chunky chips, then I reluctantly dipped my chip into the sauce expecting it to be an overly sweet taste but I was pleasantly surprised it tasted really pleasant and not too sweet and itwas just the right thickness I always expect low budget food to be very runny and it certainly wasn't.I can honestly say this sauce will find its way into my Supermarket trolley more often and I didn't even have any complaint from my husband and two children so it must be nice.

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Overall a very tasteful sauce.

Nothing can compare to my regular purchase of Heinz tomato ketchup, but being priced at £1.49 for a small bottle this was a product I could no longer afford. So when looking in my local Sainsbury's store I noticed that there were a lot of other cheaper versions. And tucked right at the bottom was the Sainsbury's basic tomato ketchup.

Priced at the extremely low priced of 36p it went straight into the trolley. The packaging wasn't very appealing being a very basic glass bottle with a white lid and white label with the Sainsbury's logo and product name in orange writing stuck to the front of the bottle.

The bottle contains 560grams of tomato ketchup. It also states on the bottle that for every 100grams of tomato ketchup contains 118grams on tomatoes. The Nutritional information on the bottle isn't very clear, it states that per serving there are 20 calories and 3.6 grams of sugar, but it doesn't state how much is classed as one serving.

I personally think it would be better if it is a squeezable bottle as it can be hard to get the remaining ketchup out of the bottom of the bottle.

Even though it's a very cheap tomato sauce it's still of a great quality. It's got a great amount of tomato flavour and will accompany your chips with delight. Make sure you give the bottle a good shake though otherwise it'll be very watery rather than a nice thick sauce when you pour it on to your plate.

Overall Sainsbury's basic yet again is nearly as good as the leading brand. This is a switch that I will always save money on.

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A decent substitute at a portion of the price!

Who needs expensive, fancy ketchup brands when you can pick up a store-brand ketchup for as little as 38p?! Well, often the taste difference will be so alarming that it's obvious why you avoid them, but this version from Sainsburys is a worth substitute...

In a clear glass 560 gram bottle, the appearance of the tomato ketchup inside the bottle is absolutely no different to that of say Heinz or Branston ketchup. Being in a glass bottle you do have the problem of when you open it, all the ketchup rushing to the exit when you try and gently place it on your plate...the squeezy-type of bottle that is now widely available is obviously a convenience and why you pay more for than type of packaging.

The important is not how much ends up on the plate, but of course the taste. It's full of tomato, but also very acidic. The ingredient list below clearly states vinegar high up in it's list, which is the main reason why. The seasoning does help neutralise some of this, but some people may find it too overpowering.

A 15 gram 'serving' of this will set you back 20 calories, but quite what that looks like or how you can judge getting that small amount on your plate is beyond me!! It's also suitable for vegetarians.

So, for those of you needing to cut back on the shopping bill, then this may be an easy way to save over £1 depending on how lavishly you spend! Remember, it's just 38p for a 560 gram bottle. You can't get better than that, and considering it's much less than half the price of popular brands, the flavour certainly isn't half as good...it's a decent match for them.

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Tasty and a real must try for you lot out there!

When it comes to sauce in my home we're all pretty heavy handed and get through a variety of bottles per week! This habit drives me Mother potty so after last week when my Step-Dad went to get fish and chips all round from the chip shop and my Mum went to get the tomato sauce out of the cupboard to be greeted by a replaced empty sauce bottle she went mental which is why when she went to our local Sainsbury's store this week she got our usual and favoured Heinz Tomato Sauce and a bottle of this as an emergency bottle.

Me, well I was slightly concerned about this purchase. I mean over the years I have dabbled in trying cheaper sauce alternatives but haven't found any worth their weight (or the pennies they cost). To me they're usually too thin in consistency, too sweet, too salty or far to vinegary for my tastebuds. However Mum replied tough like it or lump it when the Heinz ran out within 2 days so I was stuck with trying this and I thought I was going to have to lump it lol.

The Packaging:

Well the ketchup comes in a large 560g bottle which is round and tapers to the neck and it has a white screw on/off lid/cap to the top of it. Around the front of the bottle it has a white label and on the front of that I'm told in orange and white writing that it is Sainsbury's 'Basics' Tomato Ketchup 'Simple Recipe, real tomatoes' and I'm also told it is a new recipe, that it is suitable for Vegetarians and Vegans alike and there is an at a glance nutritional chart on there. Other information on the label includes a full nutritional chart being given, ingredients are listed (no allergy advice is given), I'm told it is suitable for Coeliacs, storage advice is given, size is stated and contact details for Sainsbury's are listed. The huge size bottle is quite heavy other than that it is ok though. It's obviously an economy product on it's appearance but it's informative enough (providing you don't have an allergy that is! lol).

The Ketchup Itself:

Well upon opening the bottle you are greeted with a lovely sweet aroma of tomatoes. The sauce pours out really easily and is a nice deep blood red colour, smooth and slightly glossy. It has a gloopiness to it and it isn't too watery and like I say slides out of the bottle with ease. Appearance wise it looks great!

Taste-wise well I was surprised by this to be perfectly honest with you. I loved it! It has a thickness in the mouth, a real taste of tomatoes, it's naturally sweet with a hint of sourness from the spirit vinegar that this contains, but not too much so. It is rather sweet but me, well I appreciate that and although it contains a few spices you can't detect those. It is what it is and that's it is tomato ketchup. It's a rich tomato sauce at that!

What's more when you add this to warm/hot food it doesn't melt and go to coloured water but hold up well and to get flavour on your food you don't need heaps of the stuff either making this really economical! You can add this to cooking or use it as a dip, whatever is fine.

The only issues we had with this was that when we to only having a quarter of the bottle left we couldn't get the last of the ketchup out. Our attitude to this was so what though cos the whole huge bottle only cost 36p so it's not worth worrying about a little niggle such as that.

We all love this in my household...it's lovely and now a cupboard must have!

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Good value, but at what cost?!

I work in a residential school and teach the students to budget with £70 for four people for a week - believe me its possible!!

We often resort to basic/value/smart price ranges for products such as ketchup so we can afford good quality meat.

This ketchup is... fine. Positives and negatives. Certainly the price is positive. 40p and it lasts at least a week. The packaging I find to be a negative. The student I work with are on the Autistic spectrum and for some reason they all love to COVER their plate in sauce! (Its never finished)

At times this is a choice, but it does come out of the bottle very fast - it has a slightly more runny texture than other brands.

It also has a more vinegar taste than I would like.

The packaging, is very, 'basic'... so it does what it says on the tin, I mean bottle!

I think it is a bit of a false economy if you are dealing with younger children or children that need support. I would be more inclined to spend 20p or 30p more and buy a squeeze bottle.

If it is an adult BBQ - go for it! (you can spend the 30p you save on more Lager!)

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..

Again I have been on a money saving mission and I have even downgraded my tomato sauce - I have always kept to Heinz sauce and never tried anything else so I was quite wary to try a new brand especially one so basic. Sainsburys Basics tomato ketchup - just over 40p a bottle, surely I couldn't go wrong for this price right?

The sauce comes in a 560g glass bottle with a screw off lid which adopts the not so pretty white and orange Sainsburys Basics sticker on the front. It says on the front Tomato Ketchup and underneath this it says 'simple recipe, real tomatoes'.

I was immediately drawn in by the price but the glass bottle just doesn't do it for me - but I thought to myself I won't be eating the glass bottle will I so just grin and bear it for the taste test! One thing which did calm my wary nerves though was the fact that the sauce was bright red just as you would expect from a tomato sauce. It looked promising enough.

I first tried it with my usual chips and nuggets - I was expecting it to just pour out as if pouring a kettle but I was surprised at how thick the consistency of this sauce was. It was nowhere near as thick as Heinz mind you but alot thicker than expected and it glooped out at a steady pace rather than poured out uncontrollably which I find happens with glass open top bottles rather than squeezy top bottles as you have no control with them really. I would say to give the bottle a quick shake before using it as it tends to have a runnier/watery top to the sauce itself and this shake blends it in nicely.

I dipped my finger in and had a sneaky lick. Mmm not bad. In fact alot better than I thought it would be. It had the sweetness and tangyness that tomato sauce usually has but it was a little more bitter but I wasn't expecting it be a perfect sauce for that price! The fact that it was tasty, it did taste of tomatoes and was better than I'd imagined it to be shocked me but then basic/value ranges always do.

To solve my glass bottle problem I pour this sauce now into an empty Heinz sauce bottle. There is no way this sauce could be mistaken for a higher brand but for the price that it is it is definitely worth it. I will continue to buy this and only buy Heinz now if feeling a little flush with my pennies.

A 15g serving of this sauce contains20 calories3.6g total sugars0.14g salt

I definitely reccomend trying this - I am not saying it is just as good as top brands tomato sauce but for the price of it you honestly can't go wrong it is worth a try.

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Very tasty sauce at great value

In this uncertain economic period many people have to cut back on the luxuries. One of the ways that is constantly recommended by money saving experts is to buy the value or cheaper branded products. I have decided to give this ago and one of the items I bought was the basic tomato ketchup from Sainsbury's. The product came in a glass bottle of 560g and at a cost of 40 pence. This works out at £0.07 pence per 100 grams and for this price I was starting to become a little apprehensive.

I decided to try the product with chips when I got home and I have to admit I was very pleasantly surprised. The sauce has a bright red colour and the same viscosity as I would expect from a leading brand. I fund it was easier to get the sauce to begin moving by shaking the bottle prior to pouring. The neck of the bottle is quite wide so I had to take care not to flood my plate with to much sauce. I was amazed by the great tomato flavour of this sauce and in a blind taste test I would not be surprised if many people would find this sauce nicer than the leading brands.

Following a bit of research the Sainsbury's website has informed me that the sauce is produced by using 118g of tomatoes per 100g of sauce although I am not sure how this figure should be interpreted as it seems slightly wrong but safe to say a lot of tomatoes are used in making this delightful sauce.

Overall I have been very impressed by this product. At forty pence a bottle it's a relatively easy way to cut back on shopping expense without sacrificing anything on taste. One tip I would have it to keep and clean an old squeeze ketchup bottle and pour this sauce into the squeeze bottle. That way its easier to get the desired amount on the plate and plus picky kids wont turn their noses up at it.